It's Springtime and I'm Not Ready

I love the way everything smells so fresh in the morning. This time of year the air is so crisp and the sights, smells and sounds are profound.

I went into a low early this morning. Once I had worked through it, I decided to step outside to take some trash to the dumpster, feed the cats, let Pongo out for his morning potty break (he gets up with me no matter what time it is) and run up to the milkhouse to get some milk. All the time running around outside in my robe and pjs. That’s the thing about the farm, no one sees or cares what you look like or how you are dressed. I sat down on the front steps to let a couple cats curl into my lap until my butt got too cold from the cold cement.

These are the mornings that I long for. Quiet solitude, gearing up for the day. The cranes and geese were squawking up a storm outside. In the darkened quiet, I heard the cranes, geese, a cow or two, Pongo barking while playfully chasing a cat and the purring from Midnight and Sunny in my lap. Pinky came grazing by my side, hoping that he too, could sneak in a few pets from me, and he definitely also had his purr motor going.

Once I had gone through my morning routine of eating breakfast with Bob, taking my insulin, doing the treadmill, showering, packing my lunch and getting ready for work, I headed off to the nursing home to visit with and feed Auntie before I head to the office. As soon as I got out of my car there, I noticed the smells of fresh-cut grass. I love that and the smell of fresh-cut hay.

The other thing fresh-cut grass reminds me of, though, is that I need to get moving on with my lawn work. I just don’t have the time right now. Bob still needs to get our mower tuned up and ready for the season. He is a bit behind on that and the grass is not going to wait for him. I need to get some pruning done which I just recently read the Spring pruning should be done by Tax Day – April 15th – that’s tomorrow. My taxes are done and filed, but my pruning won’t get done by Tax Day.

Additionally, I need to get into my flower beds and do some spring weeding before laying mulch and planting new plants. And that would be those plants that await being planted because they have been shipped to me already. Hope the others don’t show up at my doorstep yet. It seems like the season has come earlier this year. Or is it that I am just not ready for it yet? Most likely the latter. I have an ambitious list for my spring yard work. It is just that the one thing my list lacked this year is time.

Furthermore, I have to decide how big or much of a vegetable garden I want to put in this year. I am going to lose my garden helper and I will surely miss her. She would never complain about how much I planted or if the weeds got a little ahead of me. She knew I would catch up with the weeds eventually and the same with the picking. Auntie will surely be missed there. When I visit with her, whether she can understand me or whether she hears me or not, I reminisce about my garden projects with her. Sometimes she nods at me and sometimes she smiles. Maybe she is smiling, thinking, “whew, I don’t have to help her this year!” Maybe she is nodding at me, thinking, “yes, girl, you better get going on that.” Either way, we are having our conversation about it. It won’t be our Saturday morning telephone conversation any more. But for now, it will be just she and me talking about what needs to be done. Once she is gone, I’ll have to crank my neck up to ask her and maybe I’ll get a sign of some kind. She did this kind of work until she was 86, I certainly can hang in there for a few more years. If I can say that I am still mowing my lawn and planting flowers and a vegetable garden at 86, I’ll be one happy camper.

For now, I’ll just tell Auntie about what I intend to do. When it is time for her to go, then I’ll get to work.